A/HRC/RES/31/32
United Nations
General Assembly
Distr.: General
20 April 2016
Original: English
Human Rights Council
Thirty-first session
Agenda item 3
Resolution adopted by the Human Rights Council on 24 March 2016
31/32.
Protecting human rights defenders, whether individuals,
groups or organs of society, addressing economic, social and
cultural rights
The Human Rights Council,
Guided by the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations,
Guided also by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International
Covenants on Human Rights and other relevant instruments,
Recalling General Assembly resolution 53/144 of 9 December 1998, by which the
Assembly adopted by consensus the Declaration on the Right and Responsibility of
Individuals, Groups and Organs of Society to Promote and Protect Universally Recognized
Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms,
Recalling also all other previous resolutions on this subject, including Human Rights
Council resolutions 22/6 of 21 March 2013 and 25/18 of 28 March 2014, and General
Assembly resolutions 68/181 of 18 December 2013 and 70/161 of 17 December 2015,
Reaffirming the importance of the Declaration and its full and effective
implementation, and that promoting respect, support and protection for the activities of
human rights defenders, including women human rights defenders, is essential to the
overall enjoyment of human rights,
Recalling that the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action, the 2005 World
Summit Outcome and General Assembly resolution 60/251 of 15 March 2006, in which the
Assembly established the Human Rights Council, all affirm that all human rights are
universal, indivisible, interrelated, interdependent and mutually reinforcing and must be
treated in a fair and equal manner, on the same footing and with the same emphasis, and
recalling also that the promotion and protection of one category of rights should never
exempt States from the promotion and protection of other rights,
Recalling also the annual high-level panel discussions held at the thirty-first session
of the Human Rights Council on human rights mainstreaming, with its theme “The 2030
Agenda for Sustainable Development and human rights”, with an emphasis on the right to
development, and on the fiftieth anniversary of the International Covenants on Human
Rights,
GE.16-06484(E)